RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/ACC/TON/13 
20 July 2005 
 (05-3238) 
Working Party on the 
Accession of Tonga Original:   English 
 
 
ACCESSION OF TONGA 
 
Implementation of the Transparency Provisions of the Agreement on the  
Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  
 
 
 The following submission, dated 19 July 2005, is being circulated at the request of the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga   
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 WT/ACC/TON/13 
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 This note provides information on the way that Tonga will implement the transparency provisions of 
the SPS Agreement, which relate to: notifications to inform other Members about new or changed 
regulations that affect their trading partners; an swering reasonable questions ; and publishing relevant 
regulations. 
 
Under the SPS Agreement, countries are required to designate a Notification Authority and an 
Enquiry Point.  In order to minimize the impact on financial and physical resources and to build up trade policy expertise in this area in a dedicated  unit, Tonga has decided that the same body will 
operate both its Notification Authority and its Enquiry Point.   
 
Name of institution: National SPS Notif ication Authority and Enquiry Point: 
Address: P.O. Box 14, Nuku’alofa, Kingdom of Tonga 
Phone:  +(676) 23038 / 23402 Fax:  +(676) 23093 / 24271 / 24922 Email:  hfaanunu@maf.gov.to, maf-qqmd@kalianet.to 
 
As stated on previous occasions, the Notification Aut hority and Enquiry Point is  already operational.  
The Director, Ministry of Agriculture and Food is th e officer responsible. It is staffed by one official 
and five working committee members. The five  committee members are te chnical advisors and 
administrative supporting staff from the relevant MAF divisions: Quarantine & Quality Management 
Division; Food Division; Livestock Division; Research and Extension Division; and Corporate 
Services Division (Policy).  The Notification Authority is responsible for: en suring proposed regulations are published early in 
order to allow for comments; notifying other c ountries through the Secretariat of SPS regulations 
using the appropriate notification forms for routin e and emergency notifications; providing copies of 
proposed regulations on request; and ensuri ng that comments are handled correctly.   
 The responsibilities of the SPS enquiry point are: an swering all reasonable questions from interested 
Members and providing relevant documents regarding any sanitary or phytosanitary regulations 
adopted or proposed within Tonga; any control and inspection procedures, production and quarantine 
treatment, pesticide tolerance and food additive a pproval procedures, which are operated within the 
country; risk assessment procedures, factors taken in to consideration, as well as the determination of 
the appropriate level of sanitary or phytosanitary  protection; the membership and participation of 
Tonga, or of relevant bodies within its territo ry, in international and regional sanitary and 
phytosanitary organizations and systems; the member ship and participation of  Tonga in bilateral and 
multilateral agreements and arrangements within th e scope of the SPS Agreement; and the texts of 
any such agreements and arrangements.  The resources at the disposal of the Notification Authority / Enquiry Point are adequate for these 
purposes: it uses existing office infrastructur e and services and has word-processing capability 
(typewriter or computer), a photocopier, and access to postal facilities, telephones, fax, electronic mail 
and internet.  
 When applying the transparency provisions of the SPS Agreement, the staff of the Notification 
Authority / Enquiry Point will be guided by th e WTO Secretariat Handbook: how to apply the 
transparency provisions of the SPS Agreement of September 2002. 
 
Prior to Tonga’s accession to the WTO, responsib le government officials will receive additional 
training to ensure that, as from the date of accessi on, they are fully conversant with the requirements 
of the SPS Agreement, including: the definition of SPS measures and the distinction between SPS 
measures and TBT measures, the procedures for prio r notification to the WTO Central Registry of  WT/ACC/TON/13 
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 Notifications of new sanitary and phytosanitary regul ations or modifications to existing regulations, 
the steps to be taken when other countries  make comments on a notified SPS measure.  
 All notifications will be made in English.  Tonga will only charge the same cost for the documents as 
it would for its own nationals plus the cost of delivering the documents.   
 
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